Vile racist and misogynist texts sent by police officers in WhatsApp group with Wayne Couzens
Three Met Police officers joked about raping a female colleague and sexually assaulting domestic violence victims in a WhatsApp group with Wayne Couzens in a series of messages alleged to be "grossly offensive".
PC Jonathan Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 34, and ex-officer Joel Borders, 45, are on trial charged with the improper use of public electronic communications network between April and August 2019 relating to the messages, some of which were sent while they were on duty.
In a message sent on 25 April 2019, Borders sent a message about a colleague, writing: “She will use me as an example. Lead me on then get me kicked up when I rape and beat her! Sneaky b***h."
The court was told that Neville had also acted out a "rape fantasy" of a vulnerable, mentally ill 15-year-old girl, and referred to restraining her as a "struggle snuggle".
On August 9, Neville told Cobban about his first call as “an urgent assistant” where he “pinned a 15-year-old girl going mental on the floor”.
He wrote: “I knew all the struggle snuggles would come in useful at some point.”
Cobban, who volunteered to be a race and diversity custodian for his unit, replied: “Haha struggle snuggles are always useful… good skills!”
Speaking about Neville, prosecutor Edward Brown QC said: “He got pleasure from the detention of a 15-year-old girl with what he called a ‘struggle snuggle’.
“We submit that this is acting out a rape fantasy.
“Cobban encourages this, and comments ‘haha’, displaying an amused reaction.”
In one exchange, an unnamed officer messaged the group: "Mate they aren't gonna ditch you with your skill sets, not unless you finger a DV [domestic violence] victim!"
Cobban replied with: "That's alright, DV victims love it. That's why they are repeat victims."
In another set of messages which referenced domestic violence, Neville said: "3 domestics back to back today".
To which Borders added: "I bet they all had one thing in common Women that don’t listen"
Other messages included racist references to the multicultural areas they worked in.
In one of them, Cobban said: “Got a bus through Hounslow… what a fucking Somali sh**hole. Great. There goes pussy patrol … more like FGM patrol.”
Cobban also said of the area: "Walking through Hounslow Central is like walking through a Dulux colour code. Not even the shops were in English".
Former office Borders then said it was like "Hounslow twinned with Baghdad".
In his police interviews, Cobban said he regretted sending the messages, describing them as “stupid”.
Referring to his comments about the Hounslow community being a “Dulux chart” he said: “This comment was in relation to the vibrancy of the area.
“It was a shock to see… I was new to the area.”
Borders also said he was looking forward to getting a firearm so "I can shoot some c**t in the face."
Cobban allegedly replied to this saying he wanted to “taser a cat and a dog to see which reacts better”, adding: “Same with children. Zap zap you little f******”.
Couzens was included in the WhatsApp group, although no mention was made of messages he sent.
He is currently serving a whole-life term for the rape and murder Sarah Everard, while he was still a serving Met Police officer.
Couzens strangled Ms Everard, 33, with his police belt after kidnapping her using COVID lockdown regulations to make a “false arrest” as she walked home.
Borders, from Preston, and Cobban, from Didcot in Oxfordshire, both denied five charges of sending by public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, or menacing message or matter.
Neville from Weybridge, Surrey, pleaded not guilty to two identical charges.
The trial continues
